Thank you very much, Mr President, and our thanks to Mr Lowcock, Mr Maurer and Mr Kevin Rudd for their briefings. The United Kingdom is grateful to Vietnam for convening this debate, and is delighted to co-sponsor Vietnam’s resolution on the protection of indispensable objects for human survival.

Mr President, it was striking listening to the briefers today. They catalogued examples – specific examples – of despicable violations of international humanitarian law. And in this Council, we often hear of this kind of evidence – evidence of the devastation that such attacks on indispensable infrastructure have on civilian populations. We hear those stories in isolation, and the power of hearing them in aggregate is significant. Each one of them represents a failure of this Council to fulfil its mandate. They are our failures because we are not taking the action that might prevent them.

Because just as our briefers set out, the examples and impacts of violations, they also set out how they can be prevented. Enhanced compliance with international humanitarian law, proper military practice, and critically, accountability for those who make a tactic of such attacks.

So the adoption of this resolution today should signal the Council’s unity in condemning such attacks. But it will only start to address this issue if we are serious about taking action together.

Our first step must be to ensure all parties to armed conflicts understand their legal obligations under international humanitarian law, follow the rules and exercise restraint. That is why the United Kingdom provides specialist training in this respect through our partnership programmes with the armed forces of other Member States. Our training covers international humanitarian law, international agreements and the military justice system. Our aim is to build knowledge and compliance, and support more accountable defence and security forces.

But when perpetrators attack indispensable objects in full knowledge of their obligations under international law, and choose to ignore them we – this Council – should act. Instead, all too often, they are able to do so with impunity. Effective national and international accountability mechanisms are a crucial element in providing justice for victims and in preventing such attacks in the future through deterrence. It is worth underlining that under the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, States have the obligation to respect and to ensure respect for those instruments.

So what should we be doing? There are three immediate actions we can take to protect indispensable objects and prevent the suffering caused by targeting them in violation of IHL, using existing mechanisms.

Firstly, improve reporting and evidence. Governments and armed actors should ensure the timely collection and reporting of information to avoid harm to civilians and civilian objects, including indispensable objects. We should also ensure the effective use of existing UN reporting mechanisms into the UN Security Council and UN Secretariat to inform decision-making.

Secondly, the UNSC must act on reporting. Despite the provisions in Resolution 2417 the Council has failed to encourage any independent State investigations into the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. We have the means, but no action has taken place. In our statement to the Council at the 11 March open debate on Conflict and Food Insecurity, we highlighted such concerns in Tigray, Northeast Nigeria, Yemen and South Sudan.

Thirdly, we should do more to hold those responsible for the targeting of indispensable objects in violation of IHL to account. We will continue to press for full, prompt and impartial investigations into all incidents where indispensable objections to the civilian population are attacked, and to ensure those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law are held to account. And the Council should also be ready to consider sanctions against those who attack civilian objects of otherwise violate international humanitarian law, as it has done previously, including in the context of South Sudan.

Mr President, I would like to underscore the United Kingdom’s own unwavering commitment to the proper implementation of, and compliance with, international humanitarian law. In March 2019, we published our first ‘Voluntary Report on the Implementation of International Humanitarian Law at Domestic Level.’ We are now working with the British Red Cross to support other Member States to produce their own reports on domestic implementation, as a practical measure to encourage continued improvements in compliance with international humanitarian law.

Mr President, the Al Atareb surgical hospital in north-western Syria was bombed just over a month ago – yet another stark reminder of the devastating toll of attacks on indispensable infrastructure on civilian populations. The attackers struck because they believe they act with impunity. No state should tell this Council it believes in IHL or wishes to protect objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population unless it is willing to take steps to prevent attacks like this and hold those who commit them to account.

Thank you, Mr President.

• UK will help provide food, water and other essentials, following volcanic eruption on St Vincent
• Funding will help families meet their essential needs for three months
• Contribution will go to World Food Programme, in response to UN appeal

The UK will give further support to provide food, clean water and other essential items, for an estimated 13,000 people affected by the eruption of the La Soufrière volcano in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The new £550,000 ($695,000 USD) contribution takes the total UK funding to over £800,000 ($1m USD) since the eruption began on April 9th and will be delivered via the World Food Programme (WFP).

These funds will deliver urgent cash and voucher assistance to help families displaced by the volcano meet their immediate nutrition, hygiene and other essential needs for three months.

This announcement follows the UK’s earlier commitment of £200,000 ($278,000 USD) to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) which enabled the immediate mobilisation of regional support teams and urgent supplies for the initial relief effort.

Prior to the explosive eruption, the UK also provided £51,000 ($70,000 USD) for aerial helicopter surveillance and equipment installations to help analyse changes in the volcano and boost early warning for a timely evacuation.

Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said:

We stand united with the people of the St. Vincent and Grenadines at this difficult time. We have all been tremendously moved by the scenes of devastation and human misery that this volcano has wrought.

I am pleased that the UK stepped up to provide vital support to the CDEMA regional response within 24 hours of the first eruption. This further support will provide urgent assistance to those most affected by the impact of volcano, including those currently displaced and living in shelters.

In additional to our bilateral support, the UK is also supporting the international response in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The UK is a major donor to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which has so far allocated $1m (approximately £719,000) for water, sanitation and hygiene, and supporting livelihoods. The UK is a donor to the International Federation of the Red Cross Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF), which has allocated funding of some £209,000 ($290,000 USD) to the Red Cross response. This will go towards water and sanitation, livelihoods support and shelter.

Alongside this emergency support, the UK has an ongoing programme of development assistance to the St Vincent and Grenadines’ totalling over £40m (approximately US$55.5m). This will make a critical contribution to the country’s longer-term recovery from the eruption and includes funding for critical infrastructure projects, upgrading health care facilities, supporting disaster management systems, green energy and youth employment programmes.

The UK also continues to support St Vincent and the Grenadines and the wider Caribbean region in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notes to Editors:

As well as specific funding for St Vincent and the Grenadines, the UK supports wider regional efforts:

• The UK has provided over £15m to the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) for critical health supplies across Latin America and the Caribbean to support the fight against COVID-19.

• We have committed £548m, as one of the largest donors to the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) mechanism, to facilitate fair and equitable global access to vaccines. St Vincent and the Grenadines recently received its first delivery of 24,000 doses under the COVAX AMC.

• The UK recently pledged £21m to the Caribbean Development Bank’s Special Development Fund (SDF) from which St Vincent and the Grenadines will directly benefit. The SDF will play a critical role in supporting the region’s long-term social and economic recovery from COVID-19.

• The UK is the largest financial contributor to the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) facility. The World Bank recently disbursed $20m (£14m) of IDA funds from its Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat-DDO) to support the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines emergency liquidity needs.

• The UK was a founder member of the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), which has provided a $2.2m (£1.5m) grant for ongoing relief and recovery efforts in St Vincent and the Grenadines

I’m so glad I can join you today – and I’m so grateful to the Royal College of Pathologists for bringing us all together for these important conversations.

We’ve spent much time reflecting on the extraordinary life of His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the dignity of his life was matched only by the dignity he was shown in death.

Like so many families across our great country, the Royal Family has lost someone that they love.

And every one of us, no matter who we are, deserves dignity – whether that’s at the end of our life or when we’ve lost someone who is close to us.

That’s what our new medical examiner system does so well, by establishing a vital point of contact for bereaved families, by providing greater safeguards for the public and for being that trusted professional voice at a time of such sensitivity.

Pandemic challenges

Tragically, this past year, many lives have been lost through the pandemic.

The measures we’ve had to put in place have made it more difficult for people to say goodbye to the people that they love or are close to them.

Funerals and rituals have been disrupted, and it’s been much harder to grieve.

Since last March, we’ve increased our support for mental health charities, including bereavement support helplines, counselling and signposting services – who are playing such an important role.

I’ve also been struck by the incredible way in which you’ve all played your part too, as processes like death certification, registration and managing the deceased have never been more important.

You have done a tremendous job, in the most challenging of circumstances.

But it’s your empathy – in supporting those when they are at their most vulnerable – that we all really cherish.

In my opinion, medical examiners are some of the unsung heroes of the pandemic.

And I know it hasn’t always been easy.

It has often meant additional work – and I understand that, for a lot of people, it’s taken its emotional toll, not least, when charged with looking after the deaths of colleagues working in the NHS and in adult social care.

But you’ve risen to this challenge, and I’m truly – truly – grateful for that.

So it’s right that we have a system that reflects both your compassion and equally your capabilities.

So I just want to reflect on that for a moment on what comes next – and what the medical examiner system might look like in the future.

Learning from the pandemic

First, we have to learn from the lessons of the pandemic.

And the past year has tested every part of our system in unprecedented ways.

It has magnified the importance of the tools and processes at our disposal in ways we might never have expected.

That you’ve not only coped, but risen to the challenges with such professionalism, is a real credit to you.

But there is always more we can all do and much of the blueprint for how we can improve the system sits within our proposals for the future of the health and care system – in our health and care white paper.

1. Integration

At the heart of that paper is the idea that health professionals can operate seamlessly across health and care without being split into artificial silos that keep them apart.

Medical examiners are no exception to that.

Although hosted by NHS trusts, crucially, medical examiners will be able to provide scrutiny to neighbouring providers – from community hospitals to general practice.

Medical examiners will scrutinise all non-coronial deaths – providing an equal system for all, irrespective of the decision to either bury or cremate.

And that ability to scrutinise is vital.

The public’s expectations are, rightly, changing. There’s a much greater desire for transparency.

So we’re now working across Whitehall to address the whole journey of the deceased, focusing on every part of the system that needs changing as well as introducing a statutory medical examiner process.

2. Technology

Another key theme of our health and care white paper is the use of technology.

Aspects of the death certification process have not changed for decades.

But throughout the pandemic, it has forced us to consider new ways of working.

For example, in the absence of face-to-face appointments, we’ve transmitted information digitally.

That’s a change that was certainly coming – but the pandemic has sped that up.

Another use of technology we’re determined to embrace is our plan to digitise the medical certificate of cause of death, the form where the doctor proposes the cause of death.

This change opens up the new possibility to review the content and update or introduce new fields.

A specific requirement from the pandemic was the ability to identify ethnicity, and that’s one of the new fields which will be included so that self-declared ethnicity on patient records can be directly transferred at death certification.

I’m so grateful to the Royal College of Pathologists for their tremendous support for the delivery in these reforms, which will not only be vital for our colleagues at the Office of National Statistics, but can ultimately inform and shape health policy for the better.

Close

And I just want to say again, thank you all so much. We really do value the work that you have put in during the pandemic and the way that you have risen to the challenges that you have been presented with.

Thank you.